Consumers May Get Temporary Reprieve As Canadian DMCA Is Delayed

from the for-now dept

A few weeks ago, Michael Geist began calling attention to plans in Canada to introduce a copyright reform bill that seemed to basically give Hollywood everything it wanted. This resulted in protests, phone calls, emails, letters, faxes and many other forms of communication as concerned Canadian citizens made it clear to their government that they did not appreciate being sold out while having copyright reform turned into the Entertainment Industry Welfare Act. While the Industry Minister Jim Prentice tried to weakly defend the forthcoming bill, it seems that the outpouring of protest has resulted in a temporary victory, as it appears that the introduction of the bill will be delayed. Hopefully, the delay is to actually spend some time understanding the issues, rather than trying to wait for those pesky citizens to quiet down so the bill can be introduced with less fanfare.

following the issue

The best resource is undoubtedly Michael Geist's blog.
There's also digital-copyright.ca and Cory Doctorow follows it on Boing Boing.
Of course, it's also been mentioned in the Ottawa Citizen, National Post and on CBC, but that was mostly reporting on the protest over the bill, rather than reporting the bill itself.

It's important to note that this is only a delay, and we don't know how long a delay. It could be a couple of days while they decide how to spin it, or it could be a few weeks for a minor re-write.

If you haven't already done so, write to your MP. Snail mail to their Ottawa office is free.